Emily Scott Duench English 9 Ms. Lefolii February 23, 2024 Draft 2 A Look at Eyes in the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925. The narrator is Nick Caraway, who has recently ended up in a peculiar spot on Long Island, settled mainly by rich people. The area is divided into two distinctive towns by a body of water: East Egg, the residence of those who were born into generational wealth, and West Egg, where the ‘nouveau riche’ live. Nick encounters the effects of what being wealthy can do to you and becomes a bit of a philosopher. The novel is beautifully structured and encompasses many rhetorical devices and patterns, including the theme of eyes, which are mentioned eight times in the first chapter …show more content…
This passage is taken from a spot in the novel when Nick travels and passes a group of black people. While Nick might not be a party animal, he is blatantly racist. This important aspect of himself is uncovered from a single passage, which demonstrates just how carefully The Great Gatsby has been crafted and how profound the characters actually are. Overall, this masterfully devised text, through just descriptions of eyes, is able to evoke much more than just a picture of someone’s eyes. While descriptions of the eyes of other characters are exceedingly important, actions concerning the eyes of others are as well. Since they are another type of description, they have similar meanings waiting to be uncovered– they unveil to us the thoughts of the descriptor, and a means of scrutinising their intentions: “. and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone, and yet to avoid all eyes.” (15). When Nick has dinner with the Buchanans, it gets awkward when the fact that Tom has a mistress becomes somewhat clear to